With Arctic ice melting,
Australia on fire and increasing droughts, floods and
extreme weather throughout the world, it’s past time to
get serious about global warming. (Credit:
Nick Russill via Flickr)

By David Suzuki with
contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications
Manager Ian Hanington.

February 03, 2013 "Information
Clearing House"
- The Arctic may seem like a distant place, just as the
most extreme consequences of our wasteful use of fossil
fuels may appear to be in some distant future. Both are
closer than most of us realize.

The
Arctic is a focal point for some of the most profound
impacts of climate change. One of the world's top ice
experts, Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, calls the
situation a "global disaster", suggesting
ice is disappearing faster than predicted and could be
gone within as few as four years.

"The main cause is simply global warming: as the climate has
warmed there has been less ice growth during the winter and
more ice melt during the summer,"
he told the U.K.'s Guardian.

Over the past 30 years, permanent Arctic sea ice has shrunk
to half its previous area and thickness. As it diminishes,
global warming accelerates. This is due to a number of
factors, including release of the potent greenhouse gas
methane trapped under nearby permafrost, and because ice
reflects the sun's energy whereas oceans absorb it.

With all we know about climate change and
what's
happening in the Arctic, you'd think our leaders would
be marshalling resources to at least slow it down. Instead,
industry and governments are eyeing new opportunities to
mine Arctic fossil fuels. Factoring in threats to the
numerous species of Arctic creatures — including fish,
seabirds, marine mammals such as whales and seals, and polar
bears — makes such an approach even more incomprehensible.

Royal Dutch Shell has been preparing to drill in the Arctic,
spending $4.5 billion on operations and lease purchases. But
its record shows how risky this is. First, a spill
containment dome failed a routine safety test and was
crushed by underwater pressure. More recently, a drilling
rig, which was being towed to Seattle so Shell could avoid
paying some Alaskan taxes,
broke free during a storm and ran aground on an island
in the Gulf of Alaska. The disastrous BP oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico in 2010 showed how dangerous ocean drilling
can be even in relatively calm waters and how bogus the
claims of the industry are that it can contain or even clean
up a spill.

Responding to climate change and vanishing Arctic ice by
gearing up to drill for the stuff at the root of the problem
is insane. Unfortunately, many fossil fuel companies and
governments are engaged in a mad rush to get as much oil and
gas out of the ground — no matter how difficult — while
there's still a market. The ever-increasing devastation of
climate change means we will eventually have to leave much
of it where it is — or at the very least, substantially slow
the pace of extraction and use the resource more wisely — if
we want to survive and be healthy as a species.

In Ecuador, knowing that exploiting the country's massive
oil reserves will fuel climate change and cause massive
environmental destruction in one of the world's most
biologically diverse rainforests, leaders are taking a
different approach. The government plans to leave oil fields
in Yasuni National Park untouched if other countries help
compensate for some of the lost revenue.
So far only about $300 million has been raised toward
the $3.6 billion over 13 years that the government believes
would make up for half the oil's value, but the idea is
gaining momentum.

The Guardian notes the money won't go to government
but will be "held in trust funds and administered by the UN
Development Programme working with a board made up of
indigenous peoples, local communities, academics and
others."

Ivonne Baki, head of the negotiating committee of the
Yasuní-Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini, told the Guardian
Ecuador does not want to become overly dependent on oil.
"Oil countries are cursed," she said. "Developing countries
depend on it so much that they do not develop anything else.
It breeds corruption and the poor pay the price."

With Arctic ice melting, Australia on fire and increasing
droughts, floods and extreme weather throughout the world,
it's past time to get serious about global warming. It
remains to be seen if a plan like Ecuador's will work, but
surely a developed country like Canada can at least learn
that wastefully exploiting precious resources as quickly as
possible isn't the only option.

David Takayoshi Suzuki, CC OBC is a Canadian academic,
science broadcaster and environmental activist. Suzuki
earned a Ph.D in zoology from the University of Chicago in
1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the
University of British Columbia from 1963 until his
retirement in 2001. A long time activist to reverse global
climate change, Suzuki co-founded the David Suzuki
Foundation in 1990, to work "to find ways for society to
live in balance with the natural world that sustains us."
The Foundation's priorities are: oceans and sustainable
fishing, climate change and clean energy, sustainability,
and Suzuki's Nature Challenge. He also served as a director
of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association from 1982-1987.

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